IN THE NEWS

FAMILYSEARCH AFFILIATION

We are pleased to announce that we are now, as of
2019, an affiliate library of FamilySearch.

The Vernon & District Family History Society has
become an affiliate of FamilySearch, the largest
genealogical organization in the world. Millions of
people use FamilySearch records, resources and
services to learn more about their family history.
FamilySearch and its predecessors have been
actively gathering, preserving, and sharing
genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years.
And access to the records online is free.

FamilySearch is available on the Internet through a
home computer, but there are restrictions on some
data as to how much can be accessed from a personal
computer. There are fewer restrictions on the data
through computers at a FamilySearch affiliate
facility, such as the Resource Centre of the Vernon
& District Family History Society.

For those persons wanting to join the fast-growing
popular hobby of researching your family tree, the
Vernon & District Family History Society is a good
place to start. The Society is one of only seven
societies or libraries in British Columbia that
have affiliate status with FamilySearch. There are
fewer than 50 across Canada. The affiliation means
Society members and the public will now have
greater access to the wealth of genealogical
resources available through FamilySearch than can
be obtained from a home computer. The popular web
service has over 6 billion searchable names and 2
billion images of historical genealogical
records and at the Societys Resource
Centre you get the helpful assistance of volunteer
knowledgeable staff.

FamilySearch adds over 300 million free
genealogical records and images online yearly from
all over the world. It has amassed billions of
birth, marriage, death, census, land and court
records from more than 130 countries to help you
discover and make family connections.

The Resource Centre of the Vernon & District Family
History Society, located in the lower level of
Peace Lutheran Church, 1204 30th Avenue, Vernon,
has six computers from which FamilySearch as well
as Ancestry Library Edition may be accessed.

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch is the largest genealogy organization
in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit,
volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Millions of people use FamilySearch records,
resources, and services to learn more about their
family history. To help in this great pursuit,
FamilySearch and its predecessors have been
actively gathering, preserving, and sharing
genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years.
Patrons may access FamilySearch services and
resources for free at FamilySearch.org or through
more than 5,000 family history centers in 129
countries, including the main Family History
Library in Salt Lake City, Utah

Book offers glimpse into internment camp

Vernon Internment Camp in operation from
1914-1920

Roger Knox Feb. 14, 2018 9:30
a.m.

Image: The Vernon and District Family
History Society has produced a booklet on a First
World War internment camp in Vernon. Vernon
Internment Camp 1914-1920 is available at the
Greater Vernon Museum and Archives. (Roger
Knox/Morning Star)

Thanks to descendants and research, the Vernon
and District Family History Society has provided
a new glimpse of what life was like in a First
World War internment camp in Vernon.

“During the First World War, more than
1,000 men were imprisoned at an internment camp
in Vernon’s north end (where W.L. Seaton
Secondary sits today),” wrote McNair.
“Most were forced to work on roads in
B.C.’s Interior, but 200-300 stayed right
in the camp in Vernon for years, plus about 80 of
their wives and children.”

They were kept, said McNair, simply because of
who they were: subjects of the German or
Austro-Hungarian empires, with which Canada and
the British Empire were at war.

The booklet is about not just the prisoners in
the Vernon camp, but also about the soldiers who
guarded them.

“In our research, we were concerned with
the guards as well as the prisoners,” said
McNair. “There’s a cast of about
2,000 people: 1,000 prisoners, 1,000
guards…We know more about the prisoners
than about the guards but we hope that
changes.”

Most of the men in the camps and retained in the
camps were German, and McNair, 63, has some
working with the German language which allowed
him to discover some valuable information for the
booklet.

One of the things that stands out for McNair in
helping make the booklet was how delighted
descendants were to understand what became of
their ancestors. McNair, a military and history
buff who has no connection to the camp, said a
shining example in the book is the Schwarze
family, Karl and his wife, Victoria, and their
children, Gunter and Karla.

The Schwarzes emigrated to Canada in 1910 and
Karl became a high school principal in Nanaimo.

“Andrea Schwarze, in Dresden, Germany, held
on to his grandfather’s stuff,” said
McNair, who made contact with Schwarze through
the Internet. “His grandpa was in the camp
and was deported. He had scraps of strange
letters, strange photographs, not knowing their
context or how they related to otehr
international events.

“He puzzled over them without throwing them
out.”

The photos in the booklet – there are
pictures on every page – are spectacular.

They were provided by the national archives,
Okanagan Military Museum and descendants who,
McNair said, were more than happy to share their
stuff.

McNair called the booklet project
“exciting.”

“We thought we were encountering a story we
really understood. In fact, we don’t
understand it,” he said. “There is so
much information to draw from, so many sources,
I’m overwhelmed by how dramatic the story
is without mayhem.

“We don’t have men being shot. We
have one instance of a man being stabbed in the
hand with a bayonette. The level of brutality
seems to be less, even in the local work
camps.”

The booklet touches on life in the camps, which
includes pictures of games of soccer and hockey
among prisoners, and introduces the public to
some of the prisoners and guards.

McNair said there will be a follow-up booklet.

“Definitely,” he said. “If
anybody has something they’d like to
contribute, you can get a hold of me online at
don@mcnairediting.com.”

The booklet is available at the Greater Vernon
Museum and Archives. McNair will be talking about
the booklet at the Okanagan Regional Library on
Saturday, March 3.

No Stone Left Alone ceremony

Vernon students remember fallen soldiers at No
Stone Left Alone ceremony

Image: Dennis Wilson, of the Royal
Canadian Legion, speaks at the No Stone Left
Alone ceremony Wednesday at Pleasant Valley
Cemetery

It's a simple gesture - but to hundreds of
soldiers and their families all over the world,
the placing of a poppy on the headstone of a
fallen comrade is a symbol of respect, and more
importantly, a reminder to veterans that we will
remember them.

That's the message W.L. Seaton teacher Yvonne
Fiala, hopes students will take away from the No
Stone Left Alone ceremony held at Pleasant Valley
Cemetery on Wednesday morning.

The ceremony, organized by Fiala and Lawrna
Myers, of the Vernon and District Family History
Society, saw 130 students from three local
schools gather to pay their respects to fallen
veterans in a brief remembrance service before
placing more than 500 poppies on local military
grave sites.

Image: Grade 10 W.L. Seaton student
Abby Battersby lays a poppy on a veteran's grave
as part of the No Stone Left Alone ceremony
Wednesday at Pleasant Valley Cemetery. Visit
vernonmorningstar.com to see a video of the
event. (Lisa VanderVelde/Morning
Star)

In the weeks leading up to the ceremony Fiala,
who introduced the concept to Vernon schools last
year after participating in a cemetery tour lead
by Myers, said she and her colleagues at the
participating schools; W.L. Seaton Secondary
School, Vernon Secondary School and Beairsto
Elementary School assigned Remembrance projects,
including research on First World War and Second
World War veterans.

"The goal is to get the students reflecting a
little bit more as we get closer to Remembrance
Day, and to encourage them to learn more about
Canada's rich history of service to their
country," Fiala explained.

"I find they come to realize how much sacrifice
was involved with military service, and it makes
it a bit more real seeing local names."

"It gives them the feeling that these men and
women are more than just a name on a list their
teacher gave them," Myers echoed.

Image: A poppy is left on a veteran's
grave as part of the No Stone Left Alone ceremony
Wednesday at Pleasant Valley Cemetery. (Lisa
VanderVelde/Morning Star)

"Especially if the name they are assigned to
research is someone buried right here in Vernon,
because then they are given the opportunity to
lay a poppy on their gravestone. I think that
really helps them connect."

Through research initiated by the family history
society several years ago, Myers said 550
military graves have been identified and marked
in the Vernon cemetery. She said there will be
many more to mark as the society continues with
the project. Wednesday's ceremony, she noted, was
one of dozens hosted by, or on behalf of the No
Stones Left Alone Memorial Foundation that took
place in communities across Canada on Nov. 1.

The Edmonton-based non-profit organization,
founded by Maureen G. Bianchini-Purvis in 2011,
aims to honour our fallen military while
educating students of the sacrifice made by
Canadian veterans, by placing poppies at their
headstones every November.

For VSS student Brianne Bertram, the project
became something of a personal passion after the
Vernon teen learned she shared the same last name
as the soldier she was assigned to research.

"He was from Australia, my family is from
Scotland, so we aren't related as far as a I
know, but it would be cool if we were," she
noted.

"I still thought the process of learning all
this, and then being able actually place a poppy
on his headstone was really impactful - to be
part of something all these other people are
doing for these soldiers who might not have
family left to leave poppies for them - it feels
like we're really doing a good thing."

Explore your history

The Vernon & District Family History Society
holds open house and invites new members

Staff - Vernon Morning Star, Oct. 22,
2017 4:30 a.m.

If you've been thinking of delving into your
ancestry, the Vernon & District Family
History Society is here to help.

The society is holding an open house Nov. 4 from
10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at its resource centre at
Peace Lutheran Church (lower level), 1204 - 30th
Ave. This will be an opportunity to find out how
membership in the society can help you track down
family ancestors or long-lost relatives.

The Vernon & District Family History Society
has:

A well-stocked resource library.

International genealogy databases.

Knowledgeable resource staff volunteers.

Monthly meetings with information sessions.

A quarterly journal.

Training sessions with genealogy software.

Assistance with documenting your histories.

The camaraderie of like-minded members.

Annual social events.

The occasional seminar featuring renowned
genealogy lecturers.

For Ted Hoyte, whose family roots in Vernon are
deep, membership in the society has gone a long
way towards helping him to explore his ancestry,
which includes his maternal great-great
grandparents Hephzibah and Samuel Gibbs.

Samuel was born in London, England in 1849, while
Hephzibah Collins was born in Dartmouth, England
in 1851. They married in London in 1870 and had
seven children born in London.

In April 1885 the family travelled to New York
City on the ship, Egyptian Monarch. They then
went to London, Ont., where a son Henry was born
in 1886. In 1891 the family was living in
Enderby, B.C. where a daughter Ethel was born and
Samuel was working at a flour mill.

By 1901 some of the older children had married or
were working at other places in B.C. and Samuel
was in Lillooet, B.C. working for the provincial
government. He died there in 1925 and Hephzibah
in 1927.

October 18, 2017 - Vernon’s history mapped
out

Vernon residents can learn more about the
community’s history.

By: Morning Star Staff / Wed Oct 18th,
2017 6:30am

Image: Yvette Miller (left) and
Valerie Hooper place photographs and
advertisements around the new version of the 1892
map of Vernon. The map, which shows homes and
businesses, is on display Nov. 4 at Peace
Lutheran Church and the Greater Vernon Museum.
(Photo submitted)

The Vernon and District Family History Society,
in partnership with the Greater Vernon Museum,
has prepared a map showing the location of homes
and businesses at the time that the city was
incorporated in 1892.

“The two members of the society who
volunteered to work on the map project, Yvette
Miller and Valerie Hooper, used as a base, a plan
of the town of Vernon surveyed by J.P. Burnyeat
and deposited with the Province of B.C. Jan. 24,
1891 by the Okanagan Land and Development
Co.,” said Larry Gilchrist, with the
society.

In 1892, the city limits went from 25th Ave (the
old railway tracks) to 35th Avenue and from 35th
Street (behind Safeway) to 25th Street. Much of
the area north of 34th Avenue was bush and the
area east of 28th Street and north of 30th Ave
was mainly forested.

“The lots in this area were accessible by
logging roads only. It’s hard to image
Vernon as a forest,” said Gilchrist.

The original street names reflected the names of
the important people who lived in Vernon. In
1947, the current street and avenue system came
into being, replacing the names with numbers. But
the map recognizes both versions of the street
names in 1892 and 1947.

“Photos of some of the men involved in
arranging the incorporation of the city, as well
as newspaper ads for businesses that existed at
the time have been added to the outside margins
of the map,” said Hooper.

Hooper and Miller made good use of the
information available at the museum, including
maps, tax assessment rolls and the Vernon News.
Society member Sheila Copley plowed through the
town (later city) minutes leading up to
incorporation and for a year afterwards and made
notes.

The map will be on display at the society’s
open house at Peace Lutheran Church Nov. 4 or
drop by the Greater Vernon Museum where you also
can see the map, and peruse some of the resources
used.

Take a tour through local history

Cemetery tours provide a fascinating glimpse into
Vernon's past

The Greater Vernon Museum and Archives and the
Vernon & District Family History Society are
teaming up once again to offer their popular
Pleasant Valley Cemetery Tours this summer.

The first tour takes place Saturday and they will
run monthly, July 9, Aug. 13 and Sept. 10,
starting at 9:30 a.m. at the Pleasant Valley
Cemetery, with a duration of about two hours.

Following the tour, a light lunch will be served
at the museum, where tour guide Lawrna Myers will
be available to answer any further questions. The
museum will also have more information on display
about the historical figures mentioned during the
tour.

"With mostly new characters on tour, from North
Okanagan Creamery Association's (NOCA) organizer
and manager Everard Clarke, to boxer Clarence
(Noodles) Knox, to First World War bride Martha
Hammond and missionary Julius Rieske, you'll
learn a little history along the way and maybe a
tad bit of gossip," said Denise Marsh, marketing
and communications coordinator for the museum.

During the tour, Myers will touch on the victims
of the Okanagan Hotel fire, some of the internees
of the First World War Internment Camp and those
from the early 20th century insane asylum, as in
previous years.

Tickets are $20 per person with a limit of 25
participants per tour. Tickets are only available
at the museum and will not be available on the
event date. Participants are asked to wear good
walking shoes as the tour involves walking and
standing.

For more information, please call the museum at
250-542-3142 or visit www.vernonmuseum.ca or see
www.facebook.com/vernonmuseum